I was, but given how the entire exchange went down last time, he changed up his tactics.

Less actually, made it much harder to find him among the large crowds he now walked through. His business dealings also became more like the typical Salian affair, in the shadows and nigh undetectable beyond a few leaks here or there. I was tempted to contact one of the Thulu for information, but at that point I would be running a deficit at what the traders were paying me. I may have had some righteous reason to pursue Rau, but that didn't mean that I was about to start losing money. Making that a habit is a fast way to make yourself the charity case, and I had no intentions of doing that to myself, regardless of any sympathy I felt towards my clients.

It was, but it is not only the businessmen in the Poros Systems that maintained a network. When you're as deep into the mercenary job as I was, it helps to keep in contact with previous clients or any places you may frequent during your travels, especially any hotspots of activity through the Systems, that's where you're more likely to catch something in your net.

That was a separate affair altogether. As you can imagine, only sending a few thousand out into a space as vast as the Poros systems can make us spread so thin there is hardly any chance of meeting each other by coincidence. Some of us did decide to stick together, but for the more adventurous types like myself we struck out on our own.

Pirates are surprisingly not much of an issue in the Poros Systems. They bring too much chaos to the table you see. A calculated strike from hired guns, or an alliance much like the one that Rau was trying to establish with Paladius are more accepted forms of interference, since there is still a measure of negotiation and control to such actions, but to let anybody pillage and attack whoever they wanted tended to slow business down, and the Thulus especially would not have any of that. It made for relatively safe space travel, even now, unless you cross the wrong person of course.

Oh? And here I fancied myself to have a charming personality.

[Laughs] It is perfectly fine Keeper, I am well aware of what you meant to say. It was just a bit of fun. But you would be correct to assume such things. I, in particular, had more enemies than most because I never truly allied with anyone. If a previous client turned out to be doing something harmful to a current client, there would of course be some awkwardness, but I would still do my job regardless. That kind of mentality produces a lot of enemies, but at the same time gains you the right sort of allies in your kind of work.

The more neutral entities in the Poros systems. Your venue keepers, your engineers and scientists, and even a few information brokers at the time. My... disruptions would ensure that the playing field remained relatively neutral in certain parts of the Poros systems, which mean the amount of business that these sorts of people would receive always stayed relatively high. You let one group have influence over your part of the Systems and you're less likely to see any sort of competition. That means less negotiations and business activity in your venues, less freedom for the scientists to practice since their funding most likely comes from this new dominant power, and less information to pass between opposing forces for the brokers to make a profit from. Well, perhaps not so much with the brokers, the Thulu would always find some edge to maximize their profits, but they did appreciate the variety my actions brought. It was my own network of flies on the wall, to use a human expression.

It did. A owner of the club Bliss, on the planet Engane, spotted Rau on the planet and informed me of his location. Engane itself was one of the hotspots of activity I mentioned before, and Bliss was a fairly popular place to conduct business, or to get high off Spike and dance the day away. Rau, of course, was participating in the former. At least I assumed he was. The latter would have been infinitely more entertaining, and probably easier to deal with as well.

Yes their body suits make them unable to intake much beyond the occasional nutrient supplement, but it is an entertaining thought nonetheless.

But I must move on. I arrived on Engane not too long after receiving word of Rau's presence there, but while I knew where he was most likely to be, there was still an amount of surveillance that I needed to do before I would attack him, and Engane was a completely different environment than the generally empty streets of Cerebi. For one, there were hardly any streets expect on the ground level of the city, as much of the commute took place in the skies above via shuttle or private craft. That did not mean that the lower streets were sparse, however, as wading through the usual crowd that permeated throughout the streets was generally something that anyone, even the crowd, loathed to do.

Luckily for me, Bliss was located on the upper sectors of the city, which meant that activity was still high, but not enough to stop me from doing what I needed to do. I rented out a room in a hotel situated near the bottom of the city, however, purely for the fact that it would be easy for me to get lost in the crowd, even with the distinct features of my species. It was close to a section of the city that was undergoing some construction, which kept the people to more tolerable, but still dense levels.

There were a couple of reasons for that. The first was that Engane was a vastly different environment. As I mentioned before, it was a hyper-crowded place, due to it being a hub for many traders and dealers throughout the Systems, and that meant that the chaos that happened in Cerebi was less likely to happen solely due to the fact that the collateral damage caused would draw the ire of the Thulu, and no one wanted to do that, beyond the occasional ruffian that was too stupid to care. While I wasn't averse to breaking a few things, I was more concerned with such a firefight getting innocents involved in the crossfire.

The second, though I would not have admitted it at the time, was the human that Rau had under his wing. He wasn't overtly strong like a Jorakin, he didn't he possess the quickness of a Rezenaga nor the raw primal rage of a Skillian, but rather it was his efficiency that caught me off guard. Believe it or not, a large part of the effectiveness of psionics comes from the shock value. Lifting someone off the ground is effective, yes, but it is also the feeling of being lifted off the ground by an unseen force that elicits a sense of shock from the victim. That delay's them, making their actions easy to read or to prevent, should they so happen to survive the initial psionic assault. With the human, his instinct was instead to shut down the source of the problem rather than to react with shock, and that is exactly what he did. Now it could be very well that he was just an exception, but given that it was my first encounter with a human, it brought about a sense of caution that made me shy away from the idea of just jumping in and attacking Rau. More than likely the Salian would be keeping the human nearby, since he had extracted him out of that mess in Cerebi, which meant a more deft approach was necessary.

That was the original intent, yes.

[Smiles] Doesn't it always?

My plan at the time was to drop by Bliss just to get a feel for Rau's activities. I'd heard that he was conducting business but beyond that there wasn't much else to go on. I had to hand it to him, he was very good at hiding most of his information. To that end I visited Bliss as a normal club goer.

The nice thing about possessing psionic abilities is that they never leave you. Was I unarmored? Yes I was, but at the same time I was far from unarmed. That and it's just common sense to keep a blaster hidden on you at all times, you don't ever want to be caught off guard.

He didn't, but it helps to know the owner in such occasions, and he let me be the exception to the rule? Mostly because he knew I wasn't likely to use the weapon in such confined spaces. No sane person would really, considering the owner had guards posted up in every corner of the place, but again, it's somewhat comforting to have a means to defend yourself should the need arise.

This night, thankfully and honestly somewhat unexpectedly, I didn't have to use it.

Entry into Bliss was as simple as greeting the bouncer at the entrance, letting me skip the line. It was a rather high profile entrance, but I wasn't willing to sit in the line for an hour like the rest of the patrons.

That is what helmets are for, Keeper, though I agree there was to be some degree of caution necessary. Nereids at the time were much rarer to see than they are now, and we were always bound to draw attention to wherever we went. Eyes fell upon me when entering Bliss, ranging from the lustful gazes of someone who'd had a little bit too much to drink to the more apprehensive glances from those that were here to do what they assumed I was there for, to find a partner for the night.

To be perfectly fair, I was certainly dressed like I had every intention to.

For a combat mission yes, but for simple reconnaissance? Hardly. I may have been a Fury, Keeper, but that did not mean I didn't have some desire to look pretty from time to time. Besides, the appearance of my species alone would make a low profile approach improbable at best, so a little bit of misdirection was the best option. Fool everyone into thinking you were there just to draw eyes from wanting men and it lessens suspicion to your other motives.

However, my objective was not to get lost on the dance floor, but rather to make my way to the booths in the back, where business dealing would usually be held. It was were Rau was most likely to be. Even knowing that, however, I could hardly just take one of the booths for myself without drawing any suspicion, and because of that I needed to find someone to join me. Ideally someone so drunk that it would be easy to knock them out once we were in the booth, and given that it was the start of a holiday, they were in plentiful supply.

I spotted a particularly drunk Fenician at the bar, practically slumped over the counter and rambling on about his failed marriage. It took me a second to realize that it was one of Rau's men, and for a brief second I felt some guilt at his state. It was only for a moment, however, because he was probably the one person best suited for my purposes.

That, and Fenicians are particularly bad drunks, given them one too many sips of alcohol and it's not a question if they will eventually pass out, but when. He was also heartbroken, or remembering a time where he was heartbroken, which made him more vulnerable to my... charms when combining that with his already drunken state.

So I sat next to the Fenician, ordering a drink for myself first as to not come off as overly invested in his heartbreak. I'd planned to make a small remark to him, if only to draw his attention and then ask him to take me to someplace private so I could listen to his story.

I did, for reasons that I've already stated and the fact that mercenaries in general, at least from what I had heard from members of my own kind at the time, just wanted someone to listen to their woes from time to time. It was normal to show some bravado or to put up some front of competence, but sometimes you just need someone to listen to you, be that some stranger at a bar or someone you originally hired to warm your bed. This Fenician in particular looked about ready to burst, and that meant he was ripe for the picking.

Of course, all that scheming accounted for nothing, for the moment I received my drink he was gone, and in his place was someone I'd not expected to run into so soon.

He was just the human at that point, but yes, my husband to be, though I was not aware of it yet. I was alarmed at first if not solely due to the fact that he had taken the Fenician's place so quickly and quietly that it was as if he'd been there the whole time.

It is, though I do not see why that is important.

... I suppose I could recall the details. Luckily for you, Nereid's have a fairly strong memory.

[She glances away from the Keeper, a small smile on her face] It has been some time since I'd spoken of it anyways...

---

Now that I was closer to him, I couldn't help but be curious of his features. As I said before, humans were a fairly rare sight to see outside of UPN space at that time, even more so than the Nereids, and that kind of rarity couldn't help but bring about some curiosity from anyone they came across. This man in particular was the first human I ever met, and perhaps that is why my sight dwelled a little bit longer on his face than usual. At the time I could not tell if he was handsome by human standards or not, but there was a strength to his expression, the clearly defined square jaw, the steely look to his blue eyes that seemed both detached from the environment but highly observant of it as well, that did catch my interest. He gave off the aura of a guarded beast, and his muscles, bulky but not to the extent to where it looked cumbersome, added to that feeling. If he was a beast though, he was a well kept one, as he was cleanly shaven and had his hard cut relatively short. He was drinking something I was unfamiliar with at the time, a brownish liquid settled around two large pieces of ice.

If he was bothered by my stare then he didn't show it, and instead matched my gaze with a sidelong glance. I didn't know why, but I looked away when he did so. My curiosity had distracted me, and I came off as flustered. I caught him smirking as I did so, which sparked a small bit of irritation on my part.

"Apologies," I said, smoothing out my dress, though I did not know why, "I've just never seen one of your kind before. My curiosity tends to get the better of me at times like that."

"Don't worry about it, I'm used to it by now," he said, "I'll admit I was checking you out before I sat down, so let's call it square shall we?" he took a sip of his drink and swirled it around, aimlessly looking ahead. "You look much prettier without your armor, you know."

It took me a second to realize the implications of what he just said, and when I did, my hand darted to my blaster. The human caught my hand before I could snatch it, however, and while I could have easily knocked him away with a psionic blast, there was a gentleness to the movement that gave me pause. It wasn't some violent yank at my arm, but instead a gentler grip, one to stop my movements but not to harm me.

"Relax," he said, "No one here knows who you are except me. I'm friendly, promise." He smiled at me, an expression that was completely different than the one he'd shown before.

He let my arm go slowly, and though I was unsure if I wanted to trust the man or not, I placed my hand on the counter.

"How did you realize it was me?"

"Simple reasoning really," he explained, "After that little skirmish on Cerebi I had some cause to be interested in someone that could knock me on my ass from a distance. Nereid's are the only ones that can do that, as far as I know, and they're a little too sparsely spaced in the Poros Systems for me to run into another one so soon. Especially in the club where my ex-boss is, about to take advantage of one of his men. It was more of a hunch."

"So you just guessed?"

"I guessed right didn't I?"

"And if you didn't?"

"I could say I saw a Nereid in armor, and that you looked far prettier than she did. Either way it's a compliment to a pretty lady, so that should earn me some points, right?" He flashed me a grin that was more silly than charming.

I looked away from him and sipped at my own drink, then I realized I heard something off about his story. "You said ex-boss?"

"Yeah, I figured after saving his ass on Cerebi I was due for a little pay raise, especially since most of the men hired were, well, dead."

"And I assume that he didn't respond well to that offer?"

"No he didn't. Tried haggling the price down, aggressively, so I accepted his offer, got paid, and quit."

"That seems like a rash decision."

"You could say that, but it wasn't as if he could kill me. Word would spread of that, and having a reputation for killing your hired guns kind of reduces the hiring pool for mercenaries, wouldn't you say?"

"...yes, I'd have to agree with you."

"So that was the end of that, I stopped by the bar for a drink and lo and behold, there you were."

"You just quit?"

"Yep, not really much of a loss. Can't say working for shady businessmen does good things for my conscience." he sipped his drink again. "So don't worry about me ratting you out or anything, just thought I'd stop by and say hi."

"Odd gesture from a man who tried to kill me," I said.

"Hey now, I saved your life too didn't I? That kind of evens it out a bit, and you were about to do the same."

I couldn't argue with him there, but I was still curious about something. "Why did you save me?"

He scratched his head at that, "I can't really say for sure really. Maybe it was because I wasn't too much of a fan of Paladius, maybe it was because I felt somewhat of a connection with you or something."

"Odd time to come onto me, don't you think?"

"No it's not that," he said with a small chuckle, "I can't explain that part myself, but more than that something just didn't sit well with me leaving someone to die. If I was gonna defeat you, it was gonna be with my own hands, not because of some outside interference."

"That seems like a very... strange sense of honor."